Zebra River Lodge

Some background information for you: The same people who own Casa Blanca (where we are staying in Windhoek) also own a lodge out in the middle of no where called Zebra River Lodge.  They invited us all to come up there and visit for a weekend so we could see the country side and visit the near bye sand dunes. This was the weekend for the adventure.

This particular Friday was another one of our classic traveling days which includes many hours in the car with some car sick tummies and waiting for ever to go to the bathroom, but with an always totally worth it destination.  This Friday morning, we had some miscommunication about the details of our departure which resulted in a later than expected breakfast and packing up time.  The professors were confused, but the girls and I were thankful for some extra hours of sleep.  We were all packed (tightly) in our two cars and on the road at around 8 am.  We drove for several hours with a few stops here and there when the leading car of the two got a puncture.  This put a little speed bump in our trip, but the driver of that vehicle was a tour guide and knew exactly how to fix the problem so we were on the road again in no time.

The last 100 Km of the drive was on rough gravel road that had been rained on heavily and had some unique characteristics.  This made for some fun bum lifting from the seat bumps.  We made our arrival then at Zebra River Lodge at about 4pm.  As we weaved our way though the valley surrounded by breathtaking canyon sites, I was in awe with my mouth hanging open and a smile in my eyes.  This was the most beautiful thing I had seen since arriving in Namibia.  I loved it there.

Once arriving at Zebra we had a nice light lunch and were given some time to settle in and relax.  At 6:15pm then we mat again at three 4x4 vehicles out front where we all piled in.  We were then driving up the side of the canyon side on what I guess you could call a road (it was more of a lightly beaten path) to a sundowner sight.  There was a table and chais up there just chillin' in the middle of the beautiful seen (see pictures below).  We spent some time just taking in the scene and taking many pictures.  It was very enjoyable.  We turned back a little early as it began to pour rain.  Once back at the bottom, the rain had let up and a double rainbow was displayed across the sky.

On the road again

Then we had a puncture which created a road block for a bit

I then discovered that the air conditioning had condensed all over my bag so I but my stuff on the roof to dry while we were stopped

The sign we were all waiting for

Yes there are Zebra decorations at Zebra River Lodge :)

Beautiful Place!

My room with Bri and Kari

These chairs and tables just chill on the top of the canyon all the time

Such a beautiful view

The lodge from the canyon top

Glory!

This is a locust 

Pondering...

Great photo ops up here

Peace out...

Back down the canyonside

Beautiful rain spots and sunset

And, a double rainbow!

Best pic of the day! (we are sitting on the edge of a very high cliff...shh, don't tell my mom :)

Wed the 26th and Thur the 27th at AI Steenkamp

The end of our first full, well almost full, week at AI Steenkamp was anything but boring.  There is always so much going on that sparks my interest as it all seems so unexpected and so much of the time very different than my experiences in the United States.  So, as each morning, we began Wednesday with a staff gathering in the staff lounge.  On this particular day, our principal was the one who was giving the short greeting and words to start off our day.  I was intrigued when she began with a quote by none other than our United States president Obama.  You see many people from around the world who we have encountered in our short time here in Namibia have opened our eyes to how much the election of Obama has changed other countries' views of America for the better.  Especially here in Namibia, Obama is loved and America has a good name.

Once the staff meeting got out, I made my way to my classroom and ran into Bianca who I was pleased to see was still wearing her hair in the braided fashion I had completed for her the day before.  She was in good spirits and had a great smile on her face with which to greet me with.  I then made my way to my class where I taught some lessons until break.  At break, the boys from my 7A class came to meet me as I had instructed them to do so to get their sweets as their prize for winning the math game the day before.  The girls came also and were sad when they realized I was sticking to my guns about not giving them sweets also.  I assured them however that they would have the chance to earn sweets another day.

During break in the teacher's lounge, I was eating some snacks and drinking water from my two water bottles which I carry during the day.  (We can't drink the water at our schools, so I pack 2 bottles to make it through the day)  As I was sitting there, a few of the male teachers sitting near me asked about the water I was drinking.  They commented on how they always see us student teachers with water bottles and that we were always drinking from them.  They asked if we did the same back home in the US.  I explained to them that yes I did and it was a habit for me to drink at least four of those bottles in a day.  They looked shocked and explained to me that they did not drink water very often.  

After break Mrs. Emma taught a Home Ecology class where the learners spent the 40 minute period turning in an assignment and finishing copying the notes from the board into their exercise books.  This particular group of learners is typically very chatty and difficult to keep quiet during independent work times.  Mrs. Emma had had enough of the chatting today and so she said in a firm voice, "If you are talking then that is telling me you do not have enough work, so if you do not have enough work, you can come up to me and I will give you more work to do, enough to where you will be busy all through the night and into the morning."  That was all and we didn't hear a peep out of the learners the rest of the class.

On Thursday (our Friday) the staff member who shared to begin the day had a story of sorts that explained how teachers were created differently.  It explained how teachers were made with 6 sets of hands for juggling everything they are given and with 3 sets of eyes (one on the front, one on the sides and one on the back of their head) so they can see everything they need to.  I wish I had a copy of what he read as I found it very fun, funny, and true.  If I can get a hold of it some day, I will post it for sure.  

I noticed that I would like to share.  I have noticed that learners here are always putting colors on their assignments mostly with highlighters and other markers.  They use a ruler to mark boarders of color around each page in their exercise books and the assignments they paste in them.  Out of curiosity, I asked one learner why they all did this.  Her response to me was, "We decorate them Miss so they aren't boring."  A simple enough answer yet I was still fascinated by the amount of class time learners were allowed to do this for.  

This day too I got to see Mrs. Emma handle a conduct issue with two of her 7A students.  I was very pleased at how she called them forward and spoke to them about what they had done.  (Corporal punishment has just been outlawed in Namibian schools, but some teachers still beat children for poor behavior)  They two boys had been calling the new girl in the class names and tossing her backpack and books into the dirt.  The boys were given a complaint letter to take home for their parents to sign.  Later in the day though, the two boys and the girl they had been bullying came back to Mrs. Emma and explained how an apology and forgiveness had been arranged.  Mrs. Emma said she was satisfied for now and took back the letters putting them in her bag and telling the boys if they acted up again, she would for sure send them home with them. 

Sometime in the afternoon, Paula and Jan stopped by to take some pictures of me teaching and introduce themselves to my teacher.  I was pleased at their timing as they arrived just as we were doing our wrap up activity in a maths period.  In talking to them later in the day, they said they thought the assessment was good as they could tell from it what my learning objective had been even though they weren't present for the lesson. 

On Thursdays, Mrs. Emma has a planning period in the afternoon.  It is interesting as the teachers here don't do much during such times.  I sat with Mrs. Emma in the classroom during this 40 minute period as she sent some text messages and chatted with me a bit.  

When we returned home for the evening from dinner I think, Katee, MJ, and I found that our door would not unlock.  The lock had been being pretty sticky for a few days prior and would not budge when we tried to open it.  It was raining out and very dark.  We had 4 staff members from the hotel trying to help us and no one could get it to open (for over an hour).  Finally, we remembered our bathroom window was open, so they sent our trusty cook Rueben in through the small opening.  He walked through our room and was able to open the lock from the other side, we were so grateful and he was so humble.  About an hour later, the power went out, we took that as a sign we ought to just go to bed for the evening.

Pictures of me teaching soon to come, as for now, please enjoy these fun pictures of my professors in traditional wear :)

  

Paula's reaction to Jan's attempt to put on her head piece 

 Paula helping Jan

 Paula and Jan rockin' the traditional Owambo dress

Cultural Competency

This is the writing assignment our professors gave us to do for today. 

After visiting the north and interacting with native Namibians, how do you see your experiences so far impacting your cultural competency and how you will interact with students and people back home?  

Before coming on this trip to Namibia, I had little exposure to cultures other than those of the United States. I had traveled to Mexico in high school for one week's time, but felt that wasn't time enough to learn much about the culture in the capacity in which I went and the experiences I had. The greatest way I had previously learned about other cultures was from interacting with and talking to foreign exchange students who had come to study in the United States. I always enjoyed talking with them and learning anything I could about where they had come from, how they did things at home, and the languages they spoke. Prior to this January, I would have called myself culturally interested, but not culturally competent.

When embarking on this journey, I knew my cultural awareness and knowledge was going to change and grow, but I did not realize how quickly it would begin to happen. Being as life is conducted very differently here in Namibia than in the United States, I was immediately immersed into life here and rapidly began noticing the differences and embracing them. For example, I had been told of this idea of Namibian time and thought before arriving here that it was going to be irritating to me as I typically operate best when things happen when they are said they are going to happen. Also, my personality is one that enjoys knowing what the plan is and having everything set out in a linear fashion neither of which happen very typically here in Namibia. The first few days I was frustrated by these realities, but when I took some time to think about these frustrations, I decided to embrace these differences in ways of life rather than try to fight them. These experiences and new learnings have cause me to and I feel will continue to cause me to have a more open minded way of interacting with people and a more go with the flow, flexible mentality.

I thoroughly enjoyed the trip we took up north as it showed us several different ways of life. As we traveled down the old dirt road to the mobile schools, it felt almost as though we were going back in time. It was interesting to think about how these people lived now in comparison to how people all over the word lived throughout history. I found myself pondering these thoughts as we passed people in the seemingly middle of nowhere herding cattle and goats and saw children running around in traditional clothing with no adult in sight. These are ways of life I feel like most students in the United States think of only as ways of the past. I think that my having experienced what I have here and having seen the different cultures will affect how I teach for the rest of my career. I am growing a passion here for the people of Namibia and more widely the people of the world. It saddens me some that it took till this point in my life for me to realize these realities of different cultures that exist today and I long for this not to happen to my future students. I think the knowledge I will gain here will fuel a fire of passion for teaching my students about other cultures in hopes to open their eyes at and early age to the world outside the United States.

This trip especially my interactions with and hearing stories from Uanee have made me realize how differently life and situations within it can be viewed by people from various backgrounds. It was eye opening sitting next to Uanee at dinner in Etosha and having him explain his feelings about how we as students spoke to our professors and especially to Steve. We think of it as normal to joke with and talk informally with Steve because of the context of our casual relationship with him as Paula's husband. Having no formal connection to him, brings about a different level of formality in our interactions than would be present if we worked in Steve's school as one of his staff members. This context of relationship determining interactions is something that is present in the culture in America, but in the culture which Uanee comes from, a young person would never speak this way to a senior male in the community because it would be culturally unacceptable. Having my eyes opened to the existence of even these seemingly subtle differences has made me realize I need to be more aware of the cultures in which the people I am interacting with come from. This is important because my actions, though they may seem normal and acceptable to me, may offend or be unacceptable to those I am in interaction with. This new enlightenment will go with me for the rest of my life and will further affect my awareness with dealing with others be it in the school environment or otherwise.

I think the more different types of people with varying ideas which you can encounter in life and interact with the better. New perspectives are gained and old perspectives are challenged and grown best through experiences that cause you to think and see things in a different light. Having my cultural competency developed I feel will help me to remember to take the time to see where other people, especially my students, are coming from. To put on their lenses in which they see life through for a moment and consciously decide that it is okay for people to think and do things differently than myself is key. I realize now after taking the time to think about it that I have grown so much already from being here in Namibia, but I know that only a short time has passed so far and there are many more experiences for me to have and I know without a doubt that by the day I leave here, I will be far more culturally competent than I am today.

Day 2 of Teaching and Dolmans Children's Home

Today was the second day of teaching for us here in Namibia.  As with yesterday, I went into today not knowing what I would be doing with my time, if I would be teaching or just observing.  The day began with a double maths period (80 mins instead of just 40).  The routine in place for these double periods is for the students to pass in their exercise books and for Mrs. Emma to go through and grade the most current assignments in all 44 of them.  While she does this, the learners just sit or work on other things.  I couldn't do something with the learners while Mrs. Emma did this because once she finished with a learner's book it would be passed back to them and they began working on the next set of exercises.  So, for this first class of maths, I just observed the behaviors in the classroom and took notes.  Toward the end of the double period, Mrs. Emma did some review of the day before and gave another homework assignment for the learners to work on.  The next period (period 3 then) was Home Ecology.  Because much of Home Ecology has to do with teaching learners about the culture, I don't know how much I will be able to teach, but I really enjoy listening and learning myself during these times.  

Mrs. Emma got about 2 mins into the period when someone came to her door.  This person was coming to report that the new shipment of maths textbooks had arrived and they needed some male learners to come help unload them.  Mrs. Emma instructed the class to continue copying the notes on the board and then took 5 or 6 learners with her to help and never came back.  This was at about 8:45 am.  I did my best with the rest of the Home Ecology period and then dismissed the learners.  I then had 44 maths students arrive at my classroom.  I had them do the exercises Mrs. Emma had done with the morning group and then did some review with them.  Once this period was over, it was time for break, so I headed to the teacher's lounge four our daily meeting where I found Mrs. Emma.  I asked her where she had gone and she said she had been in the library sorting out the textbooks and that she would probably be there busy with that the rest of the day.  (This is a totally different mindset from the US, but I am learning it and getting used to it works, I think.  Basically Mrs. Emma knew I was in her classroom and trusted me to teach the learners something even though she had left me no tools or plans at all.)  

After break I had my small class of 22 learners for a double period of maths.  The students know the routine, so they were confused when I didn't have them pass in their exercise books for me to look over (one I didn't know how Mrs. Emma graded them and two I didn't want to waste learning time with that). Instead, I had the students correct the most current assignment individually, then I did some review, played a game with them, and finally assigned their next set of exercises. 

I had 80 mins of maths learning about rounding numbers to fill and a deck of cards in my purse, so I quickly created a game to give the learners more practice with the skills, but not have them be just doing a list of problems at their desks.  For lack of a better name I call this the Rounding Game and here's how it works:

Prep-seperate number cards from face cards in the deck (Aces go as the number 1)

-Have class in 2 teams, boys vs. girls works well (teams don't have to be even)

-Choose a representative from each team to go to the board with chalk

-Draw out 7 number cards and put them in a line

-Write the the number formed by the cards in the center of the chalkboard for the class to see

-Each representative then writes the number too while you have another student draw one card from the face cards

-Use this chart to announce what place value the representatives should round to

Red King= Million

Black King= Hundred Thousand

Red Queen= Ten Thousand

Black Queen= Thousand

Red Jack= Hundred

Black Jack=Ten

-Once announced they may begin, the first student with the correct answer gets a point for their team

-Students not currently being the representative can quietly help if the representative comes up with an incorrect answer (also if resources are available, students in their seats may solve the problem on a mini white board or scratch paper)

The learners loved the game and I had to stop them a few times to remind them not to yell because they were getting so into it.  The rest of the school day proceeded well and my teacher brain was stretched once again.

After school I went to tutor/hang out with the kids at the Dolmans Children's Home (my roommate Katee is a global studies major, so she is here doing an internship of sorts at this home while we are teaching, but as teachers, 2 of us are going each day after school to help the children with their homework and spend time with them).  My day of the week to do this is Tuesday, but today was my first day going since we were gone up north last week.  I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was just excited to get some more chill time with some kids here.  I really enjoyed the afternoon there.  One of the grade 6 learners from Steenkamp, Bianca, lives in the home and her hair was out of braids and going a bit crazy, so I asked her if I could try braiding it for her.  She complied, but I think she was a bit skeptical of my ability to do so.  It took me about an hour, but she ended with a pretty awesome set of corn rows that went into a small ponytail in the back (see pictures below).  Once we were done with the braiding and their homework, I got out my cards again and taught a few girls some games.  It was so fun to just be with them and see their faces light up as they were enjoying the time.

Bianca and I

Close up of the cornrows 

 The other hair stylists in the room

Group shot

1st Regular Day of Classes

Today was our first day back at the schools since our trip up north.  This was also our first regular day of classes.  Yes, we were present for the first day of school, but there were really no classes conducted that day.  Today however was totally different.  I saw 8 periods of learners and taught 3 of those periods myself.  I went into the day not knowing how much I would or wouldn't be teaching.  I didn't prepare anything because something told me that Mrs. Emma would be prepared with lessons for the day.  I did however have the back-up plan that if she didn't have anything and left me again, that I would spend the time teaching the students routines, attention getters, and doing name games to learn their names. 

My hunch was correct however, Mrs. Emma was fully prepared for her classes.  She began the day with a home ecology class ( I'm not sure if I will ever be teaching these periods since it's all about the culture here and I don't really know it, but I enjoy learning as she teaches it).  Then the second class was a maths (yes with the s) class where she was teaching about rounding off numbers to the nearest whichever place.  I watched her teach and took notes. I was pleasantly surprised as she used many great teaching strategies to help her learners including but not limit to: choral response, relating to self, direct instruction, individual response, choral reading, kinesthetic movements, linking to prior knowledge, and humor.  She also had adequate homework assignments prepared for them.

I watched Mrs. Emma teach these first two classes and then at the beginning of the second maths period she had to run to the office so she asked me if I could start the learners off with the correcting of their exercise from the day before.  Feeling confident I agreed to do so.  The learners were finished with this task and Mrs. Emma was still not back, so I proceeded to go on with the lesson as she had taught it to the first class.  Mrs. Emma came back in the middle and motioned for me to keep going.  When we ended the period, she expressed her happiness in my ability to keep going without her.  I sat through her teaching home ecology a few more times and then it came to the last two maths periods.  She asked if I wanted to teach again and I gladly agreed.  It's a totally different experience teaching to 44 learners whose names you don't know and whose desks you can't really get to.  I loved it though, felt so good to get back in the groove of teaching and I just love maths so much!

My lunch/dinner of an amazing sandwich, wheat thins (ish), grapes, and ceres orange juice (my favorite) after a busy first full day of classes

Back Home: Sunday...Lazy Day/Dinner and a Movie

After not having the internet or our computers for nearly 5 whole days, we all had much to catch up on in terms of blogging, picture uploading, and talking to our friends and loved ones.  The first part of the day was spent sleeping in, eating breakfast in our pjs, and lounging around the hotel with our computers.  At one point, we all put on black (to signify our sadness) and took a group picture with Steve (our professor's husband) as he had to leave that day to go back to work in the US.

At about 1:30 pm, we were picked up by Shane and taken to the local mall where we enjoyed an afternoon movie for N$49 (about $7 American) and an early dinner at the Cattle Baron restaurant.  The movie was hilarious and well worth our time and money.  The dinner was pretty good too.  I ordered a shrimp basket which was described in the menu to be deep fried prawns.  Silly me thought I was ordering the traditional American buttered and battered shrimp that you dip in cocktail sauce and enjoy the crunchy outside and delicious seafood inside.  Little did I know that Namibia had a totally different idea of what this meal meant.  I'll let the pictures and their captions explain the situation, but just so that you all know, I ate every that was edible in that basket :)

The shrimp basket I ordered

The eyes smiling at me

Up North: Saturday...Okaukuejo Camp and Shopping in Okahandja

So Saturday was our day of traveling home with a few stops along the way.  Uanee though being amazing as he is, wanted us to get the most out of trip as possible.  So, on Saturday morning he had us get up at 5 am again to go back into the park for a game drive from 6:30 to 8:30 to see if we could find any more animals we had not yet seen.  Alas, we did not, but we did see some more lions from about 50 feet away.

After our drive we headed back to our hotel for breakfast and to pack up and were on the road again.  We headed back to Ocho where we stopped to pick up the purchases we had ordered on our way up north earlier in the week.  Then we traveled to Okahandja and shopped at the marketplaces there.  We bartered a lot and got many gifts for our friends and loved ones.

Once we got home to Casa Blanca, we were truly thankful to be "home" it really felt like we had come home.  We were sad to say goodbye to Uanee, but we are sure we will be seeing him again before we leave.

Accommodations at Okaukuejo Camp

Mosquito netting around the beds

My purchases thus far in Namibia, most of them made in Okahandja this day

Up North: Friday...Etosha National Park

Friday was the day of second in a lifetime and once in a life time experiences.  The second in a lifetime experience was the game drive (safari).  Like I had posted before when we did the first game drive. This time, we did a self driven (or in our case taxi cab driver driven) game drive.  We went to Etosha National Park which is over 22, 000 sq kms and has about 150 different species of animals and over 400 different species of birds.  There are dirt roads that drivers travel on throughout the park and there are many rules that visitor must follow for their safety such as don't get out of your vehicle and don't drive off the road.  There are little camps periodically throughout the park where visitors can get food, gas, use the bathroom, or stay overnight.

On this particular day we got up at 5 am and had to be driving out of the bush camp at 6:30 am.  This was Uanee's idea because he wanted us to be able to see as many animals as possible.   I will let the pictures below and their captions explain most of the animals we saw, but I will share with you all the incredible story of how we were within 10 feet of a pride of lions.

So halfway through the day we stopped at one of the camps to have lunch and get some stretching time outside of the van.  There was a watering hole for viewing animals at the camp.  Some of our group wandered down to see if they could see any wildlife there.  They didn't find much of anything we hadn't seen before, but they did talk to a lady who told them that she had seen some lions and an elephant at a different watering hole just down the road a few minutes prior.  In excitement of what we might see (many of the girls were very anxious to see wild cats, and I really wanted to see an elephant) we packed up our stuff quickly and loaded into the van.  Then, Uanee pulled the van into the gas station just around the corner and to our sadness, he decided it was time to repair the leaky tire on our luggage trailer we had been pulling the whole trip.

We thought our dreams of seeing these animals were dwindling away, but little did we know our opportunity was growing.  As I have mentioned before, Uanee knows A LOT of people.  So, he happened to know a man who was at the gas station who just happened to be a game warden (sorta like a park ranger) who agreed to take us to where he knew the lions typically hung out.  On our way to following this warden, we saw signs of an elephant who may have been present a mere 5 minutes prior.  This made me sad because I just really wanted to see an elephant in the wild walking around.  But, the experience I was about to have was far more exciting.  We pulled up to an open field and saw the lions in the distance, at least a good 300 feet from the main road.  There was a car pulled over looking at them.

We thought it was really cool to have found these lions (6 of them, a mom, dad, teenage son, a young girl, and two other females).  Then things got crazy.  Uanee said that his friend was going to take all of us in the back of his little pickup truck (which had a canopy top on it) and drive us out to the pride of lions.  We thought this was so awesome so we gathered our cameras, and squeezed 11 girls (2 professors and 9 students) into the back of the tiny pickup and away we went.  The warden stopped and told the people who were on the side of the road that he was a warden and that they were not to follow him.  Then, we set out into the field.  The guy drove us right into the middle of he pride.  We had the big daddy lion on one side of us and the other five on the opposite side.  We just sat for a long while taking pictures and taking in the scene.  After a while, one lion began to walk towards the truck, so the guy moved us around the other side toward the male lion.  He bucked the car to see if he could get the lion to respond and he did.  He stood up and roared and then walked around right in front of us. It was the most incredible thing.

We ended the day still in disbelief at what we had experienced and enjoyed an amazing sunset. Glory!

 Wildebeest

Baby Wildebeests

Stork

 Hyena

 Hyena with a zebra in the background

Giraffe's eating

Zebra

Giraffe's and zebra hanging out together

A very old male giraffe, you can tell by how dark his spots are

Headed out to see the lions

Up close and personal with these mighty creatures

I think he though maybe we would make a good snack

Amazing

Oryx (we had this type of meat for dinner this night)

 Beautiful sunset to end this great day